In Contention

Tag: Let Me In

  • OSCAR TALK: Ep. 44 — The top 10 films of 2010 (x2)

    Oscar TalkWelcome to Oscar Talk.

    In case you’re new to the site and/or the podcast, Oscar Talk is a weekly kudocast, your one-stop awards chat shop between yours truly and Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood. The podcast is weekly, every Friday throughout the season, charting the ups and downs of contenders along the way. Plenty of things change en route to Oscar’s stage and we’re here to address it all as it unfolds.

    It’s the middle of the season, critics’ awards are set to unleash next week, the guild announcements are right around the corner, the holidays are breathing down our necks and it couldn’t be a busier time of year. There’s plenty to discuss, but Anne and I are nevertheless straying from the usual format this week…

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  • Stephen King’s top 10 films of 2010

    Entertainment Weekly columnist (and a dabbler in fiction) Stephen King is the first out of the gate this year with a top 10 list, beating the usual early likes of Peter Travers et al to the punch.

    King’s lists are always, shall we say, unique.  They generally lean toward the populist and make it rather obvious year in and year out that the author couldn’t possibly have seen everything there was to see in a film year.  And as you might imagine, genre fare is usually dominant.

    This year is no different.  Of COURSE this is his top 10 list.  Makes perfect sense.  And while his #1 couldn’t have been more predictable (given what he likes and what he’s written about the film), I wonder — was the original even on his radar?  (Answer: Nope.)  Anyway, check back Friday for Oscar Talk and an announcement regarding this year’s top 10 list (mine and Anne’s).  King’s full list (dug up courtesy of /Film) after the jump.

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  • TECH SUPPORT: Best Makeup — Volume II

    As I said last week (and have said several times before), no category is year-in and-year-out more perplexing than Best Makeup. Each year, this branch finds ways to turn otherwise dubious awards contenders into bona fide Oscar nominees — dubious because often nominees might be abysmal or relatively obscure.  The branch seems to have its favorites – like Greg Cannom and Rick Baker – but nevertheless manages to snub them sometimes when they seem sure bets.

    The category remains the sole remnant of the bake-off system, where the field is narrowed to seven and the nominees chosen from that collective.  Year after year, shocking omissions occur in both rounds.

    As I stated last time, despite the general weirdness of this category, we can put some traits as more likely to be embraced than others – aging, prosthetics and illness likely top the list. Also, while the category technically rewards both hairstyling and makeup, it rarely seems to concentrate on the former (“The Young Victoria” last year is a notable exception).  So all that having been established, what do I expect to see in contention this year?

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  • ‘Winter’s Bone’ leads the way with Gotham Award nominees

    The nominees for the 20th annual Gotham Independent Film Awards were announced this morning by Elvis Mitchell via live stream and we get a lot of what we’d expect.  Debra Granik’s “Winter’s Bone” received three nominations, including Best Feature, while Lisa Cholodenko’s “The Kids Are All Right” received two.  Those were the list-toppers.

    Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan” received one nomination, for Best Feature.  The director is also getting an honorary award, however, as previously announced.

    The biggest surprise for me is “Let Me In” nailing down a Best Feature nomination.  I was happy to see Glenn Ficarra and John Requa nail down a Breakthrough Director nomination for the delightful “I Love You Phillip Morris,” and I also caught “The Company Men” last week (the same day as Ficarra and Requa’s film, actually).  It’s a tight piece of work and it’s nice to see John Wells spotlighted in that category, too.

    Check out the full list of nominees after the jump.

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  • Portman and Giacchino: too many notes?

    “It’s quality work. There are simply too many notes,” says the Emperor Joseph II to an incredulous Mozart in Milos Forman’s 1984 Oscar-guzzler “Amadeus.” It’s a delicious critique, and it’s one I’ve found myself remembering a lot over the past few weeks of London Film Festival viewing, during which I seem have jotted down the word “overscored” in more shorthand film reviews than I care to count. (On the bright side, it’s made me all the more appreciative of the minimalist power of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s work on “The Social Network.”)

    But then I seem to have watched an inordinate number of recent films — be they down-the-middle Hollywood product like “Conviction” or ungainly European art films like Ferzan Ozpetek’s “Loose Cannons” — that suffer to some extent from the sheer conspicuousness of their music scores, scene after scene smothered in swooping strings or plinky piano motifs aimed to telegraph emotion instead of supplementing it.

    The two biggest offenders, in my book, are scores from gifted, Oscar-winning composers that have garnered much acclaim and even awards buzz: Rachel Portman’s for “Never Let Me Go” and Michael Giacchino’s for “Let Me In.”

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  • LONDON: Never let me in

    In a year that has seen me give over more of my time than is strictly sensible to covering the Cannes, Venice, Berlin and Edinburgh programmes, there’s something oddly disconcerting about attending a festival in my home city.

    Admittedly, the atmosphere is dampened by the fact that many of the London Film Festival’s biggest drawcards this year are films I already caught at, well, Cannes, Venice and Berlin — I feel rather as if I’ve betrayed the fest that’s been my cinephile lifeline for five years. More than that, however, when your thoughts between screenings are peppered with grocery lists, doctor’s appointments and other everyday intrusions, it’s hard to feel you’re at a festival at all.

    Yet a festival the LFF most proudly is, and a large one at that, incorporating over 170 new(ish) features, plus formidable retrospective and short-film sidebars. The advantage of having got a head start with many of the most anticipated gala screenings (“Black Swan,” “Another Year” and the like) is that I’ve been afforded time this year to seek more buried treasure.

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: Fincher reflection, ‘Way Back’ in, ‘Valentine’ blues

    • As robust box-office returns for “The Social Network” amplified its Oscar buzz, this week’s Off the Carpet column warned that the awards race is “a marathon, not a sprint.”

    • Keeping the conversation on David Fincher, we counted down the greatest technical achievements in his filmmography…

    • …and invited you to name your favorite Fincher film in our new poll.

    • Oscar-watchers got a new title to play with this week, as it was revealed that Peter Weir’s “The Way Back” will qualify for the 2010 awards after all.

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  • 10/8 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: ‘Superman’ does well, Paramount grabs Reitman’s next, Lane on ‘Secretariat’

    • Davis Guggenheim’s “Waiting for Superman” has performed better than several other high profile releases. [The Envelope]

    • David Poland sits down with “Let Me In” director Matt Reeves. [Movie City News]

    • Paramount to distribute Jason Reitman’s “Young Adult,” written by Diablo Cody. [Hollywood Reporter]

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  • 10/7 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: O’Neil relaunches Gold Derby, sticking up for ‘Let Me In,’ remaking ‘The Secret in Their Eyes’

    • Tom O’Neil takes back Gold Derby, prepares re-launch of GoldDerby.com on November 1. [Gold Derby]

    • Grilling a Harvard grad on the accuracy of final club depictions in “The Social Network.” [Vulture]

    • Cole Abaius chats with Armie Hammer about his performance(s) in the film. [Film School Rejects]

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  • 10/5 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Moving the show to January, CGI gaffes, toasting Mirren

    • The Academy considers moving the Oscars up to late January or early February.  Same old song and dance.  It would begin in 2012 and is dependent on the NFL’s plans. [Los Angeles Times]

    • Tom Shone talks to “Nowhere Boy” director Sam Taylor-Wood. [New York Magazine]

    • Monika Bartyzel toasts Helen Mirren’s rise from sexpot to Oscar winner. [Cinematical]

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  • CINEJABBER: One more time to kill the pain

    Catch the idea behind these weekend posts here.

    I don’t have much in the way of a conversation starter this week.  However, I was happy to see Emma Stone’s career taking off with the news that she’ll be offered the Mary Jane Watson role in Sony’s “Spider-Man” reboot.

    Many first took notice of the actress in last year’s “Zombieland” but most really perked up with her “Easy A” performance.  Personally, I’ve been quite taken by her since her big screen debut in Greg Mottola’s “Superbad.”

    I never took to Kirsten Dunst in the role, by the way.  There’s a certain sultriness to the character that Dunst (an actress I don’t like in general, “The Virgin Suicides” excepted) just didn’t have.  Stone has that in spades, though I feel like there’s still something slightly off.  Maybe it’s just the general idea of a “Spider-Man” reboot that I still can’t wrap my head around.  Who knows?  But this would be a smart choice by a young star at the beginning of her career.

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  • OSCAR TALK: Ep. 34 — Screeners arrive, ‘Social Network’ and ‘Let Me In’ open, ‘Secretariat’ thoughts, remembering Sally Menke

    Oscar TalkWelcome to Oscar Talk.

    In case you’re new to the site and/or the podcast, Oscar Talk is a weekly kudocast, a one-stop awards chat shop between yours truly and Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood. The podcast is weekly, every Friday throughout the season, charting the ups and downs of contenders along the way. Plenty of things change en route to Oscar’s stage and we’re here to address it all as it unfolds.

    Two incredibly well-reviewed films are hitting theaters today and Academy voters already have screeners sitting on their doorsteps, not to mention a somber week for the Hollywood community, so there’s plenty to dive into. Let’s see what’s on the docket…

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  • 10/1 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Harris on his career, McCarthy remembers Menke, King wants vampires done right

    • Ed Harris opens up about his career (speaking of which, P.S.: I’m hearing a one-week qualifier for “The Way Back” may just happen after all). [MakingOf]

    • Stephen King: Do vampires right! [Entertainment Weekly]

    • Speaking of vampires, Steven Zeitchik sits down with “Let Me In” director Matt Reeves. [Los Angeles Times]

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  • 9/27 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: ‘Wall Street’ timing, Oscar’s love affair with social relevance and a real-life ‘Whistleblower’

    • Does “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” have poor timing Oscar-wise? (Or, I don’t know, did it just kinda stink?) [The Guardian]

    • On Kathy Bolkovac, the real-life whistleblower of Toronto title “The Whistleblower.” [Lincoln Journal Star]

    • Andrew Garfield has played “Spider-Man” before, FYI. [Daily Telegraph]

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  • 9/15 Oscarweb Round-up

    • Anne Thompson sits down with Golden Lion winner Sofia Coppola, from Venice. [Thompson on Hollywood]

    • Patrick Goldstein on Hollywood’s on-going lover affair with mobster cinema. [The Big Picture]

    • Pete Hammond concurs with the Oscar buzz surrounding “The Social Network” after a slew of screenings in New York and Los Angeles. [Deadline]

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  • 9/13 Oscarweb Round-up

    • Richard Corliss, clearly irritated by early Oscar buzz, comes down hard on “The King’s Speech” and seems to think it is “bad enough” to win the Oscar for Best Picture. [Time]

    • Colin Firth, meanwhile, responds to said Oscar buzz. [The Hollywood Reporter]

    • Regarding “Let Me In,” Stephanie Zacharek contends “like a piece of great music, a strong movie can withstand multiple interpretations.” [Movieline]

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  • TIFF: ‘Hereafter’ underwhelms, ‘Let Me In’ bests original?

    I’ve been hearing for a couple of months now that Matt Reeves’s “Let Me In” is as good if not better than Tomas Alfredson’s original film (and a top 10 effort in my book), “Let the Right One In.” I won’t see it for another week or so, but early word out of Toronto dovetails with what I’ve been hearing.

    Jeffrey Wells says the film is “at least as good” as the original and that it is “carefully copied with a meticulous, unhurried, highly absorbing style.”  In fact, he eventually admits he liked it better this time around, largely because he was more impressed with Chloe Moretz than with Lina Leandersson.  MTV’s Josh Horowitz, meanwhile, Tweets, “It’s breathtaking and yes I think it’s better than the original.”  Variety’s Peter Debruge concurs, offering that the film “commands respect for not dumbing things down, offering classy, ‘Sixth Sense’-style crossover potential as it lures both genre suckers and fresh blood.”  And by the way, I’ve also been hearing that Michael Giacchino’s score could be something to watch for this season.

    Elsewhere, Clint Eastwood’s “Hereafter” had a press screening at the festival this afternoon in what I imagine was a claustrophobic 139-seat setting.  Official reviews are embargoed until tomorrow’s public screening, but I’ve got some disheartening reactions after the jump.

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  • Fall festivals ready for their close-up

    In the last couple of weeks the major fall film festivals have unveiled aggressively competitive line-ups, and the amount of potential awards product landing at Venice, Telluride, Toronto and New York is, as usual, vast.

    There are plenty of overlapping exhibitions but as for firsties, Venice will get dibs on Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan,” Julie Taymor’s “The Tempest,” Julian Schnabel’s “Miral,” Ben Affleck’s “The Town,” and Richard J. Lewis’s “Barney’s Version” before the films make their way to other fests.  Sofia Coppola’s “Somewhere” will be exclusive to the Lido.

    New York, meanwhile, landed a real coup by boasting the world premiere of David Fincher’s “The Social Network,” which will not be at the other fests.

    Toronto is again packed to the gills with product (too much, if you ask me, but it’s a media circus after all).  Clint Eastwood’s “Hereafter” will see its first bow there before heading off to New York in October.  Tony Goldwyn’s “Conviction” will also debut, as well as John Madden’s “The Debt,” Rowan Joffe’s “Brighton Rock,” Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden’s “It’s Kind of a Funny Story” and Nigel Cole’s “Made in Dagenham.” World premieres searching for distributors at the fest include Robert Redford’s “The Conspirator,” John Cameron Mitchell’s “Rabbit Hole” and Dustin Lance Black’s “What’s Wrong with Virginia,” any of which could end up being awards season possibilities.

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